News

No urgency in ambulance response times under Labor

Tuesday 12 February 2019

Ovens Valley residents continue to wait too long for an urgent ambulance under the Labor Government, Nationals Member for Ovens Valley Tim McCurdy said.

Mr McCurdy said Daniel Andrews was showing disregard for his hometown with the average wait time for a code 1 ambulance in the Rural City of Wangaratta increasing from 11:57 minutes to 13:15 minutes in 12 months.

“In the Moira Shire just 60.3 per cent of code 1 ambulances arrive in less than 15 minutes and in the Alpine shire its only 53.9 per cent,” Mr McCurdy said.

“Code 1 ambulance call-outs are the most urgent calls, when the lives of the patients are at risk and yet Ovens Valley residents are seeing ambulance wait times increasing.”

Mr McCurdy said that living in regional Victoria shouldn’t mean you have to wait longer for a life-saving ambulance.

“The urgent health needs of Ovens Valley residents are just as important here as they are in Melbourne and the Premier needs to address this issue,” he said.

“Critical services are deteriorating in regional Victoria under Labor and this cannot go on.”

Mr McCurdy said he continued to raise local issues of concern regarding the ambulance service.

“Ambulance dispatch is an issue I have raised in parliament including instances where the ambulance call taker has been unable to find a local address as well as ambulances not being dispatched from the nearest station.

“Ovens Valley residents need and deserve to have these issues with the ambulance service addressed.”